objective c - Why not enforce strict singleton application delegate object to use in NIBs?

Question

I just ran myself round in circles, all coming down to having instantiated an app delegate object in a secondary NIB that wasn't the NSMainNibFile. Amazing how having two app delegates kicking around means you have separate managedObjectContexts.

Here's a thought-- could I make my application delegate class a singleton? And safely instantiate it in more XIBs? What would that break?

Also, there are some mentions on stackoverflow that [[UIApplication sharedApplication] delegate] is a "singleton" but it doesn't appear that UIApplicationDelegate protocol guarantees that, nor is the superclass UIResponder a singleton, either. So could I shoot myself in the foot in this regard on iOS as well?

[edit] Looks like you could nil out the delegateClassName in UIApplicationMain for iOS and have the main NIB load the delegate object, so you could create the App Delegate object pattern seen on OSX, if using a main NIB.

[edit2] Screenshot of what MainMenu.xib looks like for a new non-document application. The project gets created with this object, app delegate class gets created with a window property. The issue is getting that nice handy object in other NIBs, and that object being the same as [NSApp delegate]

Answer 1

Just do this in your existing App Delegate (There will only be one!)

// In the header file    
+ (AppDelegate*) sharedInstance;


// In the body
+ (AppDelegate*) sharedInstance {

    return (AppDelegate*) [[UIApplication sharedApplication] delegate];

}

Then anywhere you want to refer to your App Delegate, you can simply use [AppDelegate sharedInstance] followed by the property or instance method you want to call.